Plight of sexually abused women depicted through dance

New Delhi: The infamous Delhi gang-rape along with several stories voicing the anguish and agony of victims of sexual violence were portrayed in a moving dance performance by students of Delhi University.

"Ab Bas" (Enough Now), a choreographic act mirroring the pain and pathos of a woman, recalling tale of the harrowing December night last year when a 23-year-old was gang-raped here, as well as many other days and nights of suffering that go unnoticed was enacted late last evening.

A troupe of about 20 students from Kamla Nehru College under the Delhi University gave the rendition as part of a two-day inter-college media festival `Vox Pop 2013` hosted by the India Institute of Mass Communication at their campus.

Dressed in a matching ensemble of flaming orange reminiscent of moving fire, the group in a carefully co-ordinated moves and gravity-defying acrobatics embedded with social narrative set the stage literally ablaze.
The ten-minute theatrical dance act enacted the horrors that women go through in their daily lives, both in public and in private. The artists also paid homage to the paramedic student who was gang-raped in a moving bus in December last and who eventually died of her injuries while undergoing treatment in Singapore on December 29.

"When we perform it we feel both the joy that we as performers give to the audience but also the immense pain that we emote to them. But it`s an excruciatingly painful experience for us as we empathise with these victims as women ourselves," Anmol Bansal, a member of the troupe said, her eyebrows covered with sweat and her eyes laden with moisture after the performance.
The dance choreography has been performed at IIT-Bombay fest `Mood Indigo` and other college festivals. "For us the travails of a woman was more important, which we wanted to draw the attention to," says Surbhi Kapoor, who leads the dance troupe.

Noted journalists, social activists, ad gurus as well as student politics leaders also participated in the student festival.